


Fire Water Burn

by Amy



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Extremis, F/F, Femslash February, Kidnapping, Relationship Discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 03:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1251832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amy/pseuds/Amy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You were kidnapped because someone wanted to carve out your heart and send it as a Valentine's Day present to your boyfriend," Natasha says.</p>
<p>"Is this going to be a conversation about the caliber of supervillains we're getting these days, or about the fact that they thought Tony was my boyfriend?"</p>
<p>(under the wire story for Femslash February)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire Water Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to mosca and spicedrum for quick helpful betas!

Pepper's almost finished wrapping the worst of her injuries when she notices Natasha's in the room. She's not bleeding anymore, obviously- since Extremis stabilized, that rarely lasts more than a few minutes- but it's important to keep up appearances, so she continues bandaging until it's neat and professional-looking. Over the past year, Pepper has gotten great at professional-looking bandages.

Natasha is casually impassive in the way that makes Pepper want to kiss or throttle her, depending on circumstances, particularly because with Natasha nothing that looks casual ever is.

"Say it," Pepper says, because you don't spend years working with Tony Stark not learning when the band-aid just needs to be torn off.

Of course, you don't spend months dating Natasha without knowing she will never willingly have a straightforward conversation.

Pepper doesn't break eye contact as she applies concealer on her arm to cover a bruise that's already mostly faded. You don't become CEO of Stark Industries without knowing how to wait someone out.

The thing most people don't realize about Natasha is that while she has ridiculous amounts of patience while on the job, when she's at home she doesn't like to wait things out.

"You were kidnapped," Natasha says finally. "Again."

There it is. "I noticed that." Pepper does not let her voice shake. She and Natasha have always had that in common.

"You were kidnapped because someone wanted to carve out your heart and send it as a Valentine's Day present to your boyfriend," Natasha says.

More than anyone Pepper has been with before, Natasha is not possessive. That is not, she has learned, the same thing as never being jealous. "Is this going to be a conversation about the caliber of supervillains we're getting these days, or about the fact that they thought Tony was my boyfriend?"

"Can't it be both?" 

"I was just kidnapped," Pepper replies. "I'm too tired to multi-task."

"But you agree they're terrible supervillains."

"Some of the worst to ever kidnap me. Which is a long list."

"Really," Natasha says dryly, which is probably fair, because she's been on most of the rescue squads. It's not that Pepper needs rescuing, usually, but until she decides the PR from Extremis would do more good than harm for the company, it's important that people think she does.

"So I guess we can talk about the other part." Most people would make it a point to sound gentle, bringing that up, but Pepper respects Natasha too much for that.

She can see on Natasha's face the exact moment she gives in. Nothing in her expression changes, but everything does, at the same time. Natasha hides everything, of course, but in a strange way that can be easier to read than Tony has ever been; large gestures to cover everything can distract her in a way a blink or a flinch cannot. "They kidnap you to get at Tony," Natasha says finally.

"And that certainly seems to be working out well for them," Pepper agrees. There are a lot of things you can say about Tony Stark, but "not petty and vindictive" has never been one of them. She's a little bit concerned about what he'll do to the group she was just rescued from; last time she was kidnapped, he engineered six different scandals to hit them all at once, and frankly, R&D needs him to use his time more productively if they want to hit their deadlines for the quarter.

Not that Pepper's one to throw stones. If she weren't a little bit petty herself, she'd be following Natasha to the point she's clearly aiming for without making her say the words.

Natasha exhales slowly, perfect yoga breathing, before speaking again. "I know that I told you we couldn't go public," she says.

"You didn't tell me," Pepper says. "We agreed. Together."

"Because of my job," Natasha counters. "But my face is already out there. More than I wanted- than I expected."

It's an intentional slip, they both know. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have made it. But intentional errors are codes, too; Natasha has been trained to know that these are the kinds of mistakes people make when they feel emotional, and she'll consciously backwards engineer them to show her sincerity.

Or it could be manipulation. But then, all things could be. Pepper knows better than to take things at face value, but she knows better than to look too deep, too.

"I know," Pepper says, because she does, the whole gamut of it; she's overseen the writing of six different cease-and-desist letters to pornographic websites and personally stopped Natasha from murdering at least three paparazzi, but she's seen also Natasha's face when teenage girls stop her on the street to ask for autographs.

"They come after you because of Tony," Natasha says again.

There's a time to toy with prey, and there's a time to turn the trajectory on its head. "And even if they knew we weren't dating, they'd still come after me because of Tony, because he is my business partner and he is my best friend and no one is closer to him than I am." She pauses. "I was thinking I should have a black eye this time. Do you have a mirror on you?"

"I can do it for you," Natasha says. "Left or right?"

"Right, please."

She's silent for a long time, brushing different shades of color against Pepper's skin with all the care Steve uses with his paintings. But Natasha never loses the thread of conversation. "Do you honestly think these people are smart enough to realize people can care about each other without fucking?"

"Maybe not the ones who kidnapped me today," Pepper admits. "But I think most of them are. I mean, plenty of them kidnap children too."

The weird part is that she genuinely means that to be reassuring.

It's obvious that Natasha's serious about this, though, because she doesn't make the comment about how they don't _know_ Tony doesn't have children. She steps back to look at Pepper's face, and her voice is calculatedly steady as she speaks. "I don't like seeing you like this, knowing I could stop it."

They both know she isn't talking about the bruise, although Pepper trusts her enough to believe it looks awful. Every word spoken is a war against instincts Natasha has honed for years, and the only thing that keeps Pepper from hugging her and promising everything is going to be okay is that they both know it isn't.

"You couldn't stop it," Pepper says.

"You don't know that."

"I'm the CEO of billion-dollar corporation that's globally represented by Tony Stark," Pepper points out. "Someone will always want to get to me, no matter who they think I lo- think I care about."

Hers isn't an intentional slip, and she wonders if that makes it mean more or less than Natasha's; realizes, a moment later, it doesn't particularly matter either way.

"I understand what you're offering," Pepper says, "and it means the world to me, it really does. But I don't need a girlfriend to save me, any more than I needed a boyfriend to."

"I never thought you needed me to save you," Natasha says. If Natasha were to ever sound offended, now would be the time. She doesn't, but only barely.

Natasha's older than Pepper is, more cynical, stronger than Pepper had ever imagined before Extremis allowed them to train together. Right now, though, Pepper can see shades of the petulant teenager Natasha was never allowed to be. She's working really hard to convince herself that isn't adorable.

"You want to protect the people you- care about." If it's not entirely an unintentional slip-up, well, no one can prove anything. "That isn't a bad thing."

"I know you can take care of yourself." They both know Natasha is trying to convince herself, but only one of them will hold that against her later. "I know you don't need me."

"Hey," Pepper says. "That's not what I said at all. I need you for lots of things, okay? I need you for that fancy tea you make, and your freakish memory for what books I want to read, and your talent at designing eyeshadow bruises, and- no one hides the bodies for me like you do." She pauses. "Metaphorically, but also literally, now that I think about it."

There's a smile playing on Natasha's lips, one that she squashes before it can become full, but Pepper knows that being allowed to see it at all is a gift. "We need to talk about that, by the way," Natasha says.

"You don't want to hide the bodies anymore?" Pepper does smile, a real smile, the kind to let Natasha know that a smile from her would be okay too, if that were something she wanted to offer. "Because we may have to start redecorating then. I wouldn't know the first thing about where to keep them."

"No, hiding the bodies is fine," Natasha says. "But you have got to stop burning them. Do you have any idea how hard it is to cover up your powers when you're constantly setting people on fire?"

"I'm not constantly setting people on fire," Pepper protests.

"Eventually, the people who kidnap you are going to talk."

"I thought that was why SHIELD... dealt with them." Pepper knows that she probably shouldn't be too delicate to explicitly reference incarceration, torture, and death when they're people who she fought herself. But she isn't strong with that like Natasha is. She's a different kind of strong.

"No, we dealt with them because they're terrorists." A pause, a breath. "And I dealt with them because they hurt you."

"And I appreciate that."

"But seriously. Can't you just punch them? It's a lot easier to cover up punching."

Pepper doesn't say what they both know: that Extremis is connected to emotions. That when she's scared or angry or both, the flames start whether she wants them to or not. There are a lot of things Natasha understands, some better than anyone else in the world, but out-of-control emotions will never be one of them.

"I guess we'll just have to train at that more then," Pepper says.

"I guess we will." And now Natasha does grin. Her body can say things her mouth has never learned to, because sex can be a diversion and words can mislead but combat is the easiest way for her to communicate how she actually feels.

It should be bizarre, but it doesn't actually feel that strange to Pepper. She's spent her whole life falling for fucked-up people who want to make the world better.

"How do I look?" Pepper asks.

"Terrible," Natasha promises. "You should try to smile less, though. Or at least look like you're smiling through the pain." Because Natasha has forgotten more about hiding who she is than Pepper will ever know.

"Thank you," Pepper says. And even though she knows she could leave it, knows they would both understand, she can't help herself: "for discussing this with me."

Natasha makes a face, a _disgusted at having to talk about emotions_ face. Pepper is honored to be the recipient of it. Very few people have successfully made Natasha talk about her feelings, and probably even fewer of them lived through it.

"I promise next time you can just shoot things until you feel better," Pepper says. She knows Natasha will probably hold her to that, but honestly, worse things have happened. Natasha on the shooting range is like Tony in the workshop; if you know how to look, you can see just about everything.

"You should make Tony get you a present," Natasha says. "If you're getting kidnapped because of him."

It's a peace offering, the strange kind of peace offering normal people wouldn't even recognize. The last time Natasha suggested getting something from Tony, she'd had remarkably detailed specs for some personal toys she wanted Tony to make. With that in mind, Pepper is more than happy to listen to any other requests Natasha has.

But this isn't like that, maybe. "He should get you something nice," Natasha says. "You deserve something nice."

"I have something nice. I have you."

Natasha's face is pointedly impassive at that, and this time Pepper can't help herself; she leans over and kisses her.

"Stop," Natasha protests. "You'll ruin your makeup."

Your bruise, Natasha means. You'll ruin the lie we're using to hide the truth.

It's probably true, but Pepper doesn't really care.


End file.
